Rabbi Toba's Shabbat Thoughts

In this week’s Torah portion, Behaalotecha, the Israelites finally begin their journey from Mount Sinai – where they’ve been camped for over a year since leaving Egypt—on to the promised land.  During that time, they've built the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary, and have been camped around it according to their tribes.  All has been orderly and regulated, in preparation for the next phase of their...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion, Behukkotai, begins with these words: “If you will walk in My laws and keep my mitzvot, to do them…I will walk among you, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; I am YHVH your God who brought out of the land of Egypt, from being slaves to them; I broke the bars of your yoke, making you walk upright.” 
 
I love this invitation to metaphorically “walk” in Godly ways, with...Read more...

In this week’s Torah portion, Emor, we read about the counting of seven weeks between the holiday of Pesach and the “feast of weeks,” Shavuot. In Leviticus chapter 23, the Israelites are instructed to “count from the day after the holiday, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering, you shall count seven weeks…You shall count until one day after the seventh week, 50 days, and then you shall bring an...Read more...

This Sunday, April 7, marks 6 months since the attacks of October 7 and the devastating war in Gaza began.  The horrifying, inexcusable killing of workers with World Central Kitchen this past week is simply the latest in the horrors of this war, in which countless innocent people have lost their lives, in which most of the population of Gaza is suffering from famine, and which has made Israelis no safer (quite the contrary). Even as...Read more...

We are entering into the Shabbat before Purim, Shabbat Zakhor—“Remember!”—based on an a few verses from the book of Deuteronomy traditionally added to the weekly Torah reading, in which the Israelites are commanded to “remember what Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt,” and the additional command to “blot out the memory of Amalek.”  The villain of the Purim story, Haman, is understood to be a descendant of the...Read more...

This week’s Torah portion is Vayak’hel, “And he gathered,” which recounts Moses gathering together the Israelite community to begin the work of building the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary.  I was blessed to experience my own “gathering” this week in Atlanta with the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. Due to both the pandemic and then the movement-wide convention in 2022, this was the first time we’d had our...Read more...

This week we begin the final section of the book of Exodus, which is almost entirely taken up with the construction of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary that accompanied the Israelites throughout their wilderness wanderings. Parshat Terumah includes God’s instructions to Moses to “build me a holy place, that I may dwell among you.” This structure, to be created through the voluntary donations and craftwork of the Israelite community,...Read more...

I just returned from an incredibly inspiring rally in support of the Newton Teachers Association at the Newton City Hall.  Over 1,000 teachers, students, and community supporters were out in full force, braving the cold and chanting “enough is enough,” in support of a new, fair contract for the teachers. With so much going on in the world that tends to make me feel helpless to effect change, it was a wonderful reminder of the power...Read more...

This week we begin reading the book of Exodus/Shemot, which initiates the great story of the liberation from slavery in Egypt. In the first chapters of the book, the verb to “see” is repeated numerous times.  When Moses is born, his mother “sees” how beautiful he is, and  decides to save him from Pharaoh’s decree to murder all newborn Israelite boys.  She puts him in the Nile in a little basket, and as it floats...Read more...